Richard Edmonds

Concerns over online safety are growing as each day passes with new malicious websites are created, websites are infected and people are downloading like never before. How do you know if a website is genuine or isn’t going to harm your computer? Search engines like Google, Bing etc. can only do so much their end as well as your web browser (feel free to cry should you still use Internet Explorer) in terms of protection. It’s up to you to make the end decision in choosing which websites to visit and which ones to pass on.

Your first line of defence is the URL for any given web page (domain or section) you are attempting to visit. If it is a link within a block of text, highlight it. Should it be visible already, take a closer look at it (especially in emails). When you look at a URL it is normally easy to pick out genuine from fake. Check out the below example.

http://www.paypal.securepayus.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_enter_account

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact_us

I bet you can easily spot the difference, it is a terrible example but you get the idea. Hundreds of email users fall for these scams or visit web pages they thought were to be real, but weren’t. A wide range of problems occur from viruses being downloaded, spy-ware infecting the operating system, or even your bank account details being copied – all without you noticing a thing.

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